A man shot who mistook his loaded gun for his wallet, accidentally shot himself in the butt at a Home Depot in Brighton Michigan, the day after Christmas.

On December 26, 2013, an unidentified man was checking out at a Home Depot, in Brighton, Michigan. When reaching for his wallet, he accidentally grabbed his gun instead. The gun went off in his pocket, shooting the man in the butt.

The man was taken to the hospital to receive treatment for the butt hurt.

The police were called and the ‘responsible gun owner’ was taken to the University of Michigan Hospital, where he was able to have the bullet removed from his butt.

As it turns out the man had a permit, and the loaded gun in his pocket was perfectly legal. Since no-one else was injured and no damage was done to the store, police say they won’t be pressing charges against the 32-year-old gun owner.

Getting shot in the butt a common problem among ‘responsible gun owners.’

Like the Nevada man who shot himself in the butt, after accidentally dropping a loaded gun in a movie theater. The gun landed under his own seat, sending the bullet upward, into his own rear end. While such incidents are becoming more and more common, the reason that story drew national media attention was because the incident occurred in a movie theater, less than a month after the Aurora theater massacre.

Nothing says ‘responsible gun owner’, quite like a bullet wound to the butt. It doesn’t have happen because you mistook your gun for your wallet or because it fell out of your pocket, either. As it turns out there are a whole lot of ways to get yourself shot in the butt.

A Labrador Retriever shot a man in the butt.

For instance, an Arizona man thought taking a three-year old out target shooting was a good idea. He left the loaded rifle where the toddler could then pick it up, and shoot him in the butt. He’s lucky that kid didn’t kill him or accidentally harm himself.

The real problem is that innocent bystanders get shot too.

While it’s fortunate that no-one else was injured during the Home Depot catastrophe, there have been many similar incidents which did result in injury to others. For example, last year a Walmart shopper in Waco, Texas accidentally mistook his gun for his wallet, just like the Home Depot guy. The 52-year-old shopper shot himself in the butt too. During that incident however, after the bullet went through the butt of the ‘responsible gun owner,’ it ricocheted off the floor, hitting a woman and her 5-year-old daughter, sending both to the hospital.

Common sense gun measures can help reduce the number of ‘responsible gun owners’ who shoot themselves in the butt and elsewhere.

In spite of the NRA hype over the president’s plan for sane gun control measures, it’s clear that putting some of the proposed policies into effect would reduce the number of accidental gun injuries in the US. The plan would include money to be used for educating gun owners on how to safely store, handle and carry guns. It would require gun manufacturers to improve safety features, maybe even making them so that they don’t go off when dropped and can’t be fired by three-year-old kids or Labrador Retrievers. Instead of putting more guns in the hands of more morons, we need to pass these and other common sense measures.